Monday, August 27, 2012

Serious, SERIOUS happy pitter patter of my heart happened to me this past month for I was assigned through The Secret Recipe Club to a New England based food blog called, I Am Honey Bee . That's right folks, this blog is based in the lovely city of Boston. Less than 2 hours away from me!!!Hip, Hip, HOORAY! I just love finding fellow food bloggers that live in New England.

The adorable, Nicole is the brains and beauty of I Am Honey Bee. She offers a huge variety of wonderful recipes. I chose a cookie recipe (no surprise there!) but I was seriously on the edge of trying out Nicole's recipe for Insalata Caprese﻿. The cookie recipe that I chose to bake is called, Maple Walnut Oatmeal Cookies. I mean really! - how could I NOT make such a cookie recipe!?! Living in the heart of NH, maple anything is a delight to me. And these cookies baked up to be a HUGE delight to me and my little family. Yum. SERIOUS yum!

The cookies were full with maple flavor along with a soft middle with a nice crisp edge allowing for the perfect amped up oatmeal cookie. And because I adore raisins in my oatmeal cookies I threw a bunch of those in along with the chopped walnuts that Nicole had in her cookies. Thus the title of these cookies becomes, Maple Raisin Walnut Oatmeal Cookies....the perfect New England oatmeal cookie in my book. Next time I may add some dry cranberries into the batter just to make it an "ALL" flavors of New England cookie. :-)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silipat.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a medium sized bowl. Set bowl aside.

3. Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating well in between each egg. Add in vanilla extract and maple syrup. Beat well to combine all together.

4. Add in sifted dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix well.

5. Add in oatmeal and mix well. Toss in nuts (and raisins if you so wish) and mix to combine.

6. Drop cookie batter by the rounded tablespoon onto prepared sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges of cookies start to brown and center is still slightly moist. Cookies will continue to bake once out of the oven and cooling.

Enjoy! And ENJOY some more!

﻿

While you are enjoying your cookies please be sure to browse through my fellow Secret Recipe Club-ers blogs....they seriously ROCK! Just see the great links below..... :-)

Thursday, August 16, 2012

As a baker living in New England I can always appreciate discovering a new and successfully delicious recipe that calls for blueberries. I adore baking with fresh blueberries. Baking with frozen blueberries isn't too shabby either.....especially if I have picked them fresh myself and frozen them for later use.

I whipped up this lovely blueberry yumminess of a cake with some freshly picked blueberries. And the recipe that I used did not disappoint. The cake came out with a wonderful flavor and gorgeous texture. What more could you ask for in a cake?! I do have to say that having both yogurt and sour cream as ingredients in this recipe leaves NO room for a dry cake. This cake is super moist. Greek or regular yogurt can be used along side the sour cream. I chose to use Greek lemon yogurt as I thought it was pair well with the blueberries. Plain or vanilla Greek yogurt would work fine too if you wish to tone down the lemon flavoring in the cake.

I do have to admit that I was patting myself on the back when I took my first bite of this cake as it tasted SO good. I remember thinking, "Goodness, I could sell this cake with NO problem!" - meaning that it came out so nicely that I envisioned setting up shop in front of my house and holding out a sign advertising "Blueberry Lemon Cake For Sale" because I was so impressed with the cake. I highly recommend you make this cake yourself!

I topped off the cake with a dusting of powdered sugar. Next time I think I will drizzle it with a lemon glaze. YUM.

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Welcome to my blog! I have created this blog to share my love for being in the kitchen. You will find many a recipe for baked treats and goodies along with family friendly savory dishes. Nothing too fancy but always made with love and happiness!